Classification data for Coues Whitetail in Arizona

This table provides survey data for Coues deer in Arizona by unit and by year. Years covered are 1997-2001. Not all units were surveyed every year. Also, please note that this is what is usually referred to as “classification data”, meaning that these are counts of deer that were seen by wildlife managers during their surveys. These numbers do NOT represent the total number of deer in these units. Managers gather classification data to look at changes over time of buck:doe and fawn:doe ratios. These numbers are used to evaluate the herds. High buck:doe ratios usually occur in lightly hunted populations, whereas areas that are heavily hunted will have much lower buck:doe ratios. Fawn:doe ratios are used as a measure of the productivity of the herd. Ratios are most accurate when many deer are classified. So look at the total number of deer classified to see how valid the ratios might be. For example, in unit 1 in 2001 only 14 deer were seen. I wouldn’t put a lot of confidence in that classification data to be representative of the entire unit. Whereas in unit 36A in 2001, 347 deer were counted, which should give you more confidence in the ratios. The numbers in the “unclassified” column represent deer that were seen but could not be classified for sure as a buck, doe, or fawn. This might happen if a manager just saw the tail end of a deer disappearing into thick brush as they conducted the survey.

Data has been gleaned from the Arizona Game and Fish publication “Hunt Arizona – 2002 edition”.